Wow. It’s been an interesting few days. I never imagined that my blog post would launch such passionate discussion. It’s obviously a topic that our community really wants to talk about. Whether you have agreed or disagreed with “Take it like a man”, thank you for your comments. It’s been amazing to see all of the shared opinions and stories.
I’m not sure if I’m going to put it back up yet. The response to the post was huge – and overwhelming. The original version was written and posted too quickly. I accidentally put a timeline in that could point fingers, in spite of my desire to keep all participants (except myself) anonymous. And there was a comment posted on it later that could hurt a family. It was hidden.
The current version–the one that was posted the longest–is pretty much the same as the original. I only changed a few lines to make absolutely sure that the incidents could not be identified as to time or place.
Thank you again for being part of the discussion about brutality in fencing. As we have seen, it’s not just a male/female issue. We have been asking ourselves important questions such as: what is the role of the referee in this? What is the role of a coach? How much force is too much? What do we do when it happens?
There aren’t any good answers yet. But that’s okay. The important thing is to talk about it. We’ll figure it out.